Jesse Helms would have been considered mainstream in today’s Republican party. {shudders!}

D_C_Wilson

Barry Goldwater couldn’t have made it today’s GOP.

Clancy

For much of my youth, I thought of Bob Dole as a pretty scary character. His political positions on social issues were (then) extremely conservative. However, in hindsight, he could have been much worse, as Dole really had no issue with compromising to get something rather than nothing. Also, he seemed to recognize that when the other side won an election, they actually get to govern.

The thing that is completely off about the argument that ‘Reagan wouldn’t be accepted in today’s GOP’ is the assumption that Reagan (or whomever) would not have simply shifted their views to be compatible with the party. Reagan wasn’t a transformative figure so much as he was a symbol for the more active socially conservative components within the party. This is why, despite all the evidence to the contrary, the base of the current GOP views him as the ideal. He was the standard bearer when they became ascendant. He is whatever they need him to be.

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